2005 Red Lake shootings

Last updated
2005 Red Lake shootings
Part of mass shootings in the United States
Location Red Lake, Minnesota, U.S.
DateMarch 21, 2005;17 years ago (2005-03-21)
2:49 – 2:58 p.m. (UTC-6)
Target Red Lake Senior High School
Attack type
 School shooting, mass murder, shootout, murder–suicide, spree killing
Weapons Semi-automatic pistols (Glock 22 and Ruger MK II)
Shotgun (Remington 870)
Deaths10 (including the perpetrator)
Injured5
Perpetrator Jeff Weise
Motive Bullying, personal and familial stress, depression, transgenerational trauma

The Red Lake shootings were a spree killing that occurred on March 21, 2005, in two places on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Red Lake, Minnesota, United States. That afternoon, 16-year-old Jeff Weise killed his grandfather (an Ojibwe tribal police sergeant) and his grandfather's girlfriend at their home. After taking his grandfather's police weapons and bulletproof vest, Weise drove his grandfather's police vehicle to Red Lake Senior High School, where he had been a student some months before.

Contents

Weise shot and killed seven people at the school and wounded five others. The dead included an unarmed security guard at the entrance of the school, a teacher, and five students. After the police arrived, Weise exchanged gunfire with them. After being wounded, he shot and killed himself in a classroom. At the time, it was the deadliest school shooting in the United States since the Columbine High School massacre.

Background

At the time of the shooting, by some accounts, Jeff Weise was living with his paternal grandfather, Daryl Lussier Sr., a sergeant with the Red Lake Police Department, run by the Ojibwe (aka Chippewa) tribal government at the Red Lake Indian Reservation. The household included his grandfather's 32-year-old girlfriend, Michelle Leigh Sigana. Weise's paternal aunts, Shauna and Tammy Lussier, said he had lived mostly with them for the past several years, and they helped him get treatment for behavioral issues and depression. [1] In 1999, Weise's mother suffered severe brain damage in an alcohol-related car accident and had since lived and received care in a nursing home. Still a child, Weise was forced to move from Minneapolis to live with his father's family on the reservation. His father had died by suicide in 1997, [2] so Weise was officially placed with his grandmother, Shelda (Gurneau) Lussier. [2] Weise's aunts helped care for him, especially after his grandmother's death in 2003.

The reservation of the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe is in northwest Minnesota and is one of two nationally that are "closed"; only Ojibwe tribal members may live there and own land. Its residents suffer high rates of unemployment, violence, and suicide. Housing is poor, and many students do not finish high school. [3] Work opportunities are limited on the reservation, which has a population of more than 5,000. A study in 2004 found that a high proportion of students in high school had thought of suicide. [4]

Shootings

The day of the shootings, Weise retrieved a Ruger MK II .22 caliber pistol from his bedroom and fatally shot his grandfather as he was sleeping; he shot him two times in the head and ten times in the chest. According to Weise's friends, the teenager may have had the gun for as long as a year. He took Lussier's two police-issue weapons, a .40 caliber Glock 23 pistol and a 12 gauge Remington 870 pump-action shotgun, a gun belt and a bulletproof vest. [1] Weise then fatally shot Sigana, his grandfather's girlfriend, two times in the head as she carried laundry up the stairs.

Weise then drove his grandfather's squad car to Red Lake Senior High School, arriving at around 2:45 p.m. CST. As he entered the school through the main entrance, he encountered two unarmed security guards manning a metal detector. Weise shot and killed security guard Derrick Brun, while the other security guard escaped without injury. Weise proceeded into the main corridor of the school.

Weise began shooting into an English classroom, killing three students and one teacher, and wounding three students. [5] Student Ashley Lajeunesse said that Chase Lussier (no direct relation to Weise's father or grandfather) sheltered her, and was one of those shot and killed by Weise. Jeffrey May, a 16-year-old sophomore, tried to wrestle Weise inside the classroom and stabbed him in the stomach with a pencil. [6] May's diversion allowed students to flee the classroom to safety, but Weise shot him two times in the neck and once in the jaw, leaving him seriously injured. [3]

Witnesses said Weise smiled as he was shooting at people. One witness said that he asked a student if he believed in God. [5] This is believed to have been a reference to a widely publicized exchange during the 1999 Columbine High School massacre between Dylan Klebold and Columbine survivor Valeen Schnur.

At around 2:52 p.m., Weise returned to the main entrance, where he killed two students and wounded two others. The police had arrived quickly and engaged him in gunfire. FBI Special Agent Paul McCabe said the shootout lasted for about four minutes. None of the police officers were injured. [5] After being hit three times in the lower back, right leg, and right arm by police gunfire, Weise retreated to the classroom where he had shot and killed the teacher and students. [7] Remaining students in the class witnessed him lean against a wall, put the shotgun barrel to his chin, and fire, killing himself. [1]

The shootings lasted nine minutes. Weise fired a total of 59 shots during the shooting spree; 14 at his grandfather's home and 45 at the school. He fired 37 rounds from his grandfather's Glock handgun, 14 from his Ruger handgun, and eight from the shotgun. [8]

Fatalities and funerals

A total of ten people, including the perpetrator, died in these events. [9]

The night after the shooting, many people of the community gathered at the high school gymnasium for a healing ceremony. They performed traditional Ojibwe ceremonies and prayed. [3]

Within days, preparations started for funerals on the reservation. Tribal members drew from Ojibwe traditions as well as Catholic rites. They "collected bundles of sage, to be given as gifts and burned during funeral ceremonies." [2] Families picked personal items to be placed in the caskets. [2]

Aid to victims and families

Minnesota has a state fund that aids victims and their families. In addition, the Red Lake Band of Chippewa established a memorial fund; it reached $200,000 in donations from across the country by April 2005. Initially, the tribe made 15 grants of $5,000 each to victims and their families, including one to Weise's relatives. A tribal spokesman noted his family was not eligible for state compensation and said that they carried "a double burden." The grant was to help pay for Weise's funeral and burial. [15]

On July 21, 2006, the Red Lake school district reached a settlement with the families of the massacre victims. The school district agreed to pay $1,000,000 total to 21 of the victims' families, the maximum amount allowed by Minnesota law. Of the settlement, $900,000 was to be immediately granted to the families, and the remaining $100,000 to be set aside for future distribution. [16]

Perpetrator

Jeffrey Weise was labeled an outsider in the Red Lake community and had recently been placed in "homebound" schooling for breaking school rules. [9] He was remembered as a quiet kid that normally wore a black trench coat and gel in his hair. [17]

Weise had grown up with a difficult and disrupted family life; his parents were a young unmarried couple who separated before he was born. His mother, Joanne Weise, was 17 years old at the time of his birth. Joanne's family insisted that she give up her son to the father, Daryl Lussier Jr., who was a few years older than her. Weise did not live with his mother again until after he was two years old, when she reclaimed him and took him to live in Minneapolis. In later online postings, Weise wrote that his mother had become an alcoholic who was sometimes physically and emotionally abusive. [18] In 1992, she started dating Timothy "Troy" DesJarlait, and they married in 1998 after having had two children together. Weise moved around often because of his mother, and attended several different schools during his adolescence.

In 1997, when Weise was eight years old, his father Daryl Lussier Jr. died by suicide at age 32, shooting himself after a days-long standoff with Red Lake tribal police. [19] Lussier's own father, Daryl Lussier Sr., was a sergeant with the tribal police and was involved in the standoff. [20]

In 1999, when Weise was ten, his mother was in an alcohol-related car accident and suffered severe brain damage. She had to be committed to a nursing home for rehabilitation. [21] [2] After separating from her in 2000, DesJarlait divorced Weise's mother in May 2004. He took custody of the two children he'd had with Weise's mother, but did not opt to take custody of Weise. [22]

Weise was placed in the custody of his paternal grandmother Shelda (Gurneau) Lussier, who lived on the Red Lake reservation. He had to leave Minneapolis, where he had lived most of his life, to live with her and other paternal relatives in Red Lake. His maternal grandmother, Rita Weise, also lived on the Red Lake reservation. [22]

Motives

Police investigators began searching for a motive behind the shootings. According to their findings and media reports, Weise was often bullied or teased in school by classmates. A tall youth weighing 250 pounds (115 kg), he was known to wear dark eyeliner, [21] as well as a long black trench coat and other black clothing to school year round. [21] He was referred to as a "goth kid" by many of his classmates. [23] He did not usually respond to taunts. Some fellow students thought of him as a loner, but he had his own circle of friends.

Weise expressed frustration about living in Red Lake, and felt his life was beyond his control. During these years, he got close to his grandfather, Daryl Lussier Sr., who gave him a bedroom of his own. Lussier Sr. lived with his companion Michele Sigana. Weise was said to have a good relationship with his grandfather. [2]

Although Weise had been separated from his mother and stepfather for years by the time of their divorce in May 2004, he attempted suicide soon after, and again in June 2004. At that time, his aunts [1] and the Red Lake Medical Center arranged for Weise to be taken to a hospital for psychiatric treatment, where he stayed for three days. [2]

Weise was prescribed Prozac as an anti-depressant, to be continued as treatment together with counseling. His doctor had increased his dosage a week before the shooting, to 60 mg a day of Prozac. [24] Weise's aunts, with whom he lived much of the time at Red Lake, said they had arranged for his medical care and were concerned about the increase in his dosage. [1] His actions reopened the debate about Prozac use among children and adolescents. In October 2004, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had issued a warning about its use, but it is still the only anti-depressant that is FDA-approved for children. [1]

Lorene Gurneau, a relative of Weise's paternal grandmother, said she and other family members thought Weise had never gotten over his father's suicide in 1997. In addition, his mother's car accident in 1999 had left her brain damaged and in a nursing home, which meant that he had effectively lost both parents by the age of ten. [2] When his mother's ex-husband refused to take custody of him, he felt like he didn't belong. [22]

Internet activities

Weise was discovered to have been quite active on the Internet. According to The Smoking Gun , Weise created two violent Flash animations for the flash website Newgrounds, using the alias "Regret". One animation, entitled "Target Practice", features a character who murders three people with a rifle, blows up a police car with a grenade, and kills a Klansman. The 30-second animation ends with the shooter putting the gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger. Weise had created another Flash animation, entitled "Clown", in which a clown kills a man by eating his head. [25]

A LiveJournal account, apparently created by Weise, contained three entries posted between December 2004 and January 2005. The weblog was customized to be rendered in black and white. In his posts, Weise expressed his desire for change and salvation in his life. [21]

Weise was a fan of the music genre known as horrorcore, and was particular a fan of rappers such as Mars, Jimmy Donn and Prozak. [26] He was known to frequent the Mars website.[ citation needed ] Jimmy Donn's song "Game Over" (which is a song about a school shooting) was said to be one of Weise's favorite songs, and Weise owned Jimmy Donn's album The Darker Side. [26]

Legacy and memorials

Siblings of the victims and survivors participated in the 2018 School Walk Outs, which were designed to show respect for shooting victims seen nationally but especially in Florida and Red Lake. [27]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sioux</span> Native American and First Nations ethnic group

The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations peoples in North America. The modern Sioux consist of two major divisions based on language divisions: the Dakota and Lakota; collectively they are known as the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ. The term "Sioux" is an exonym created from a French transcription of the Ojibwe term "Nadouessioux", and can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or to any of the nation's many language dialects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Lake, Minnesota</span> Census-designated place in Minnesota, US

Red Lake is a census-designated place (CDP) within the Lower Red Lake unorganized territory located in Beltrami County, Minnesota, United States. As of the 2020 census, Red Lake had a total population of 1,786. The Red Lake Indian Reservation is based in Red Lake.

The Wisconsin Walleye War became the name for late 20th-century events in Wisconsin in protest of Ojibwe hunting and fishing rights. In a 1975 case, the tribes challenged state efforts to regulate their hunting and fishing off the reservations, based on their rights in the treaties of St. Peters (1837) and La Pointe (1842). On August 21, 1987, the U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that six Ojibwe (Chippewa) tribal governments had the right under these treaties for hunting and fishing throughout their former territory.

Public Law 280, is a federal law of the United States establishing "a method whereby States may assume jurisdiction over reservation Indians," as stated in McClanahan v. Arizona State Tax Commission. 411 U.S. 164, 177 (1973).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Lake Indian Reservation</span> Home to the federally recognized Red Lake Band of Ojibwe

The Red Lake Indian Reservation covers 1,260.3 sq mi in parts of nine counties in northwestern Minnesota, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians</span> Indian tribe in Wisconsin, United States

The Bad River LaPointe Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians or Bad River Tribe for short are a federally recognized tribe of Ojibwe people. The tribe had 6,945 members as of 2010. The Bad River Reservation is located on the south shore of Lake Superior and has a land area of about 193.11 square miles (500.15 km2) in northern Wisconsin, straddling Ashland and Iron counties. Odanah, the administrative and cultural center, is located five miles (8.0 km) east of the town of Ashland on U.S. Highway 2. The reservation population was 1,545 in 2020. Most of the reservation is managed as undeveloped forest and wetland, providing a habitat for wild rice and other natural resources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Banks</span> American actor

Dennis Banks was a Native American activist, teacher, and author. He was a longtime leader of the American Indian Movement, which he co-founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1968 to represent urban Indians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Lake Secondary Complex</span> Public high school in Red Lake, Minnesota, United States

Red Lake Secondary Complex, formerly Red Lake Senior High School, is a public state-funded high school in unincorporated Red Lake, in Beltrami County, northern Minnesota, United States. The high school is located on the Red Lake Indian Reservation on which members of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa (Ojibwe) Indians live, and has over 300 students. The school's mascots are the Ogichidaag and Ogichidaakwag. The school also hosts its own radio station, Ka-MOD. The school is a part of Red Lake School District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Weise</span> American mass murderer

Jeffrey James Weise was an American student at Red Lake Senior High School in Red Lake, Minnesota, who committed the Red Lake shootings on March 21, 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clyde Bellecourt</span> Native American civil rights activist (1936–2022)

Clyde Howard Bellecourt was a Native American civil rights organizer. His Ojibwe name is Nee-gon-we-way-we-dun, which means "Thunder Before the Storm". He founded the American Indian Movement (AIM) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1968 with Dennis Banks, Eddie Benton-Banai, and George Mitchell. His elder brother, Vernon Bellecourt, was also active in the movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Earth Indian Reservation</span> Anishinaabe / Ojibwe reservation in Minnesota

The White Earth Indian Reservation is the home to the White Earth Band, located in northwestern Minnesota. It is the largest Indian reservation in the state by land area. The reservation includes all of Mahnomen County, plus parts of Becker and Clearwater counties in the northwest part of the state along the Wild Rice and White Earth rivers. It is about 225 miles (362 km) from Minneapolis–Saint Paul and roughly 65 miles (105 km) from Fargo–Moorhead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minnesota Chippewa Tribe</span> Governmental authority for six Ojibwe or Anishinaabe bands in Minnesota, US

The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (MCT) is the centralized governmental authority for six Chippewa bands in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The tribe was created on June 18, 1934; the organization and its governmental powers are divided between the tribe, and the individual bands, which directly operate their reservations. The bands that make up the tribe are:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leech Lake Indian Reservation</span> Indian reservation located in north-central Minnesota

The Leech Lake Reservation is an Indian reservation located in the north-central Minnesota counties of Cass, Itasca, Beltrami, and Hubbard. The reservation forms the land base for the federally recognized Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, one of six bands comprising the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, organized in 1934. The Leech Lake Reservation has the second highest population of any reservation in Minnesota with White Earth Nation being the largest Minnesota Ojibwe tribe, Leech Lake Nation has a resident population of 11,388 indicated by the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe</span>

The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, also known as the Leech Lake Band of Chippewa Indians or the Leech Lake Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe is an Ojibwe band located in Minnesota and one of six making up the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. The band had 9,426 enrolled tribal members as of March 2014. The band's land base is the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, which includes eleven communities aggregated into three districts, as defined in the tribal constitution,

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe</span> Federally recognized American Indian tribe located in east-central Minnesota

The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, also known as the Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians, is a federally recognized American Indian tribe located in east-central Minnesota. The Band has 4,302 members as of 2012. Its homeland is the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation, consisting of District I, District II, District IIa, and District III.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians</span>

The Lac Courte Oreilles Tribe is one of six federally recognized bands of Ojibwe people located in present-day Wisconsin. It had 7,275 enrolled members as of 2010. The band is based at the Lac Courte Oreilles Indian Reservation in northwestern Wisconsin, which surrounds Lac Courte Oreilles. The main reservation's land is in west-central Sawyer County, but two small plots of off-reservation trust land are located in Rusk, Burnett, and Washburn counties. The reservation was established in 1854 by the second Treaty of La Pointe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa</span>

Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is a band of Ojibwe Native Americans. The Red Cliff Band is located on the Red Cliff Indian Reservation, on Lake Superior in Bayfield County, Wisconsin. Red Cliff, Wisconsin, is the administrative center. Red Cliff is notable for being the band closest to the spiritual center of the Ojibwe nation, Madeline Island. As of November 2010, there were 5,312 enrolled members, with about half living on the reservation and the rest living in the city of Bayfield or the Belanger Settlement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Sugar Point</span>

The Battle of Sugar Point, or the Battle of Leech Lake, was fought on October 5, 1898 between the 3rd U.S. Infantry and members of the Pillager Band of Chippewa Indians in a failed attempt to apprehend Pillager Ojibwe Bugonaygeshig, as the result of a dispute with Indian Service officials on the Leech Lake Reservation in Cass County, Minnesota.

The Westside Middle School shooting was a school shooting on March 24, 1998, at Westside Middle School in unincorporated Craighead County, Arkansas near the city of Jonesboro. Perpetrators Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, fatally shot four students and a teacher with multiple weapons, and both were arrested when they attempted to flee the scene. Ten others were wounded. Golden and Johnson were convicted of five murders and ten assaults, and were imprisoned until each turned 21 years of age. After the 1992 Lindhurst High School shooting that killed four people in Olivehurst, California, the massacre was the deadliest non-college school shooting in contemporary U.S. history until the April 1999 Columbine High School massacre.

Roger Jourdain was an Ojibwe civic leader who served as chairman of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa from 1959 to 1990. Jourdain is credited with protecting Red Lake's extensive tribal sovereignty and improving tribal infrastructure during his tenure in office.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Helms, Marisa (March 25, 2005). "Shooting fuels debate over safety of Prozac for teens". Minnesota Public Radio . Archived from the original on March 18, 2013. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Huffstutter, P.J. (March 24, 2005). "Red Lake Reservation Readies Burial Rituals". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on April 19, 2012. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 Maag, Chris (March 27, 2005). "The Devil in Red Lake". Time . Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved December 19, 2012.
  4. ↑ Sevcik, Kimberly (August 8, 2005). "Reservation for Death". Salon . Archived from the original on January 7, 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 Lennard, Jeremy (22 March 2005). "Ten dead in US school shooting". Archived from the original on September 19, 2005. Retrieved November 15, 2005.
  6. ↑ "Tales Of School Shooting Bravery, Slain Security Guard, Wounded Student Saved Others From Teen Gunman". CBS News . March 24, 2005. Archived from the original on November 15, 2007. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  7. ↑ "E-Mail Describes Bloody Scene Inside Red Lake High School". KARE 11 News . March 31, 2005. Archived from the original on July 9, 2012.
  8. ↑ Feds: Assault at Red Lake over in nine minutes
  9. 1 2 "MPR: Victims of the Red Lake shooting". Minnesota Public Radio . March 22, 2005. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
  10. ↑ "Feeling scars at Red Lake, 10 years later".
  11. ↑ "17-year-old charged with triple homicide". Red Lake Net News. March 2005. Archived from the original on October 18, 2005.
  12. ↑ "Red Lake Shooting Conspiracy?". CBS News . March 30, 2005. Archived from the original on July 16, 2007.
  13. ↑ "'Reader's Digest' Readers Pick Hero From Red Lake". WCCO-TV . Archived from the original on November 12, 2007. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
  14. ↑ Rosengren, John (September 2005). "Everyday Hero: Jeff May". Reader's Digest . Archived from the original on November 28, 2007.
  15. ↑ "Tribe Gives Victims Aid to Shooter's Family, Citing a 'Double Burden'". Los Angeles Times . April 15, 2005. Archived from the original on April 4, 2013. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  16. ↑ Miron, Molly. "Judge signs $1 million order for Red Lake school shooting victims' families". Rodgers Law Office. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
  17. ↑ Enger, John. "The shooting at Red Lake: The victims". Archived from the original on July 3, 2018. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
  18. ↑ "A Bloody Day on the Rez". Newsweek . April 3, 2005. Archived from the original on November 3, 2012.
  19. ↑ Davey, Monica (March 27, 2005). "Tribe Buries 3 on a Long Road to Healing". The New York Times . Retrieved August 16, 2019.
  20. ↑ Langman, Peter (January 15, 2015). School Shooters: Understanding High School, College, and Adult Perpetrators. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 73. ISBN   978-1442233560.
  21. 1 2 3 4 Davey, Monica (March 24, 2005). "Signs of Danger Were Missed in Troubled Teenager's Life". The New York Times . Retrieved August 16, 2019.
  22. 1 2 3 Rave, Jodi (July 11, 2005). "Family still struggling to understand teenager's rampage in Minnesota". Missoulian . Retrieved August 16, 2019.
  23. ↑ "Troubled Life Of Minnesota Shooter". CBS News . March 22, 2005.
  24. ↑ Haga, Chuck (March 25, 2005). "Family: Teen had 'a good relationship' with the grandfather he killed". Star Tribune. Archived from the original on September 29, 2011. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  25. ↑ "School Killer's Animated Terror". The Smoking Gun. March 23, 2005. Archived from the original on March 24, 2005.
  26. 1 2 Herendeen, Susan (July 4, 2009). "Juggalos take issue with label as a gang". The Modesto Bee . Retrieved August 16, 2019.
  27. ↑ Bowen, Joseph T. (March 14, 2018). "At Red Lake, site of 2005 school shooting, walkout carries deep significance". The Bemidji Pioneer. Retrieved June 4, 2018.

News articles

Wikinews-logo.svg Ten dead on Minnesota Indian reservation after school shooting at Wikinews

Coordinates: 48°09′18″N95°06′08″W / 48.15500°N 95.10222°W / 48.15500; -95.10222

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.